The Yale women's basketball team is seeking its first Ivy title since 1979. Yale is the No. 4 seed in the league tournament and will face No. 1 Princeton Saturday at 6 p.m. at the Palestra in Philadelphia.

The Yale women's basketball team is seeking its first Ivy title since 1979. Yale is the No. 4 seed in the league tournament and will face No. 1 Princeton Saturday at 6 p.m. at the Palestra in Philadelphia.

Photo: Yale Athletics

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Yale senior guard Tamara Simpson was named the Ivy League's Defensive Player of the Year for the second straight season.

Yale senior guard Tamara Simpson was named the Ivy League's Defensive Player of the Year for the second straight season.

Photo: Yale Athletics

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Guth

Guth

Photo: Yale Athletics /

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Yale senior guard Tamara Simpson led the Bulldogs with 14.5 points and 4.4 steals per game.

Yale senior guard Tamara Simpson led the Bulldogs with 14.5 points and 4.4 steals per game.

Photo: Yale Athletics

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Yale women's basketball coach Allison Guth has led the Bulldogs into the Ivy League tournament as the No. 4 seed. Yale will play Princeton Saturday at 6 p.m. at the Palestra in Philadelphia.

Yale women's basketball coach Allison Guth has led the Bulldogs into the Ivy League tournament as the No. 4 seed. Yale will play Princeton Saturday at 6 p.m. at the Palestra in Philadelphia.

Photo: Yale Athletics

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Guth trying to build a culture at Yale

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NEW HAVEN — As she kicked off her third season as the head of the Yale women’s basketball program, Allison Guth offered some vacation advice to her players.

That spring break jaunt to Myrtle Beach? Hold off.

“We’re trying to build a culture here, to have kids not book a ticket when it’s spring break,” Guth said. “So our first team meeting this year, it was understand that we will be playing this spring. That’s the expectation. That’s where we’re going. Don’t book those tickets.”

And for an Ivy League school, the road to the Big Dance runs through The Palestra. Yale, seeking its first Ivy title since 1979, secured the No. 4 seed in the league tournament and will face No. 1 Princeton Saturday (6 p.m.).

This the second year of the Ivy League’s postseason tournament and Yale finished sixth in the league last season. The Bulldogs were 15-12 for the second year in a row, but their league record — 8-6 this season, 6-8 last year — improved.

So Guth’s program has taken a significant step.

“It’s so huge,” she said.

To take another step and secure its first NCAA Tournament berth, Yale will need to beat Princeton before defeating the winner of Saturday’s Penn-Harvard semifinal game. Yale ended the regular season with losses to Princeton and Penn, the top two teams in the league.

But Guth’s team did beat Princeton earlier in the season and the Bulldogs had won three in a row and five of six before the final weekend of the season.

After the losses, Guth and her coaching staff spoke to the players about their missed opportunities. Yale committed 13 turnovers in each game, most of the unforced variety.

On Monday, the players returned to practice with a high level of intensity. It was the best practice of the season, Guth said.

“Oh my gosh it’s awesome,” Guth said. “You have to have a pulse of your team and when you see that they’re hungry for it? …. I think it gives us a little bit of an edge going into the tournament.”

Guth took over at Yale in 2015, after Chris Gobrecht left for Air Force after 10 years in New Haven. Guth (14-17 in her first season) had been an assistant at Yale under Gobrecht before spending three seasons as an assistant at Northwestern.

She has also coached at DePaul and Missouri, and she played at Illinois. Guth has NCAA Tournament experience as both a coach and a player.

And her top assistant is Melissa D’Amico, who played at Notre Dame. So Yale’s coaching room has lots of March Madness experience.

“We’ve talked to them about playing [in the postseason],” Guth said. “It’s a different level.”

Guth, though, is confident her players will respond to the moment. Yale has scheduled Power 5 programs the past few years, including a game at Stanford last year and a victory at TCU this season.

Led by seniors Jen Berkowitz and Tamara Simpson — both 1,000-point scorers — Yale has evolved throughout the season.

“I think the times we’ve had the biggest crowds with family and friends supporting, those are the times that we’ve stepped up to that challenge,” Guth said.

Princeton (22-5) has won six of the past nine Ivy League titles. But Guth believes her team matches up well with the Tigers, and she sees a group of players capable of winning some games this weekend and beyond.

“If we were able to be that Cinderella story and take out some teams down there, I would argue we’d actually be great in the [NCAA] tournament,” she said.

Still, she’s also realistic. She recalls an early conversation with Yale men’s coach James Jones, who cautioned her to be patient and enjoy the climb.

And indeed, her program is climbing. Yale has one fo the best mid-major recruiting classes arriving next season, highlighted by Lakewood, Colo. forward Camilla Emsbo (No. 34 in the country by ESPN HoopGurlz Class of 2018 rankings).

Guth sees lots of high level talent around the country that could be drawn to Yale. The three seniors on this year’s team are pre-med students, players who came to New Haven for an elite education.

Then there’s the basketball component. Playing in March equals more eyeballs on the program. That’s why postseason is a continuous talking point.

“I think culture wise, it’s shifting what the expectation is,” Guth said “It’s got to be consistent at this level. We’re not just talking about Ivy championships, we want to talk about how we can expose this program nationally and you get to do that in the national tournament.”

Ivy Honors

Yale senior guard Tamara Simpson, who leads the Ivy League with 4.4 steals per game, was named the league’s Defensive Player of the Year for the second straight season. Her 347 career steals is second all-time in the Ivy League. Simpson, who leads Yale with 14.5 points per game, was also named to the Ivy League second team.

Yale senior forward Jen Berkowitz, who averages 14.4 points and a team-leading 7.3 rebounds per game, was named first team All-Ivy League. Both Simpson and Berkowitz reached the 1,000-point career plateau this season.

Sophomore guard Roxy Barahman was named honorable mention All-Ivy. It is the most Yale honorees in the Ivy League since 2013.